The Window
by Grim Noire
Summary: They say history sometimes repeats itself.  To James Sirius Potter, who spent most of his day making one Scorpius Malfoy's life hell, it meant nothing until he stumbled upon an old Pensieve, locked away in the Potion professor's cupboard.
1. Chapter One

_Title: The Window_

_Author: Grim Noire_

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter, et al, belongs to J.K. Rowling, I claim nothing blahblahblah. The OCs are my creation._

_Author's Note: Working title, for now. Here be OC's. Don't like it? Don't read. Otherwise, enjoy. All constructive crit is encouraged.  
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"Hey Malfoy, how do you keep your hair so shiny? Bet you dunk it in a fat pot of grease every morning, don't you?"

James Potter smirked and sat back as he listened to his friends, a group of four other Gryffindor boys, guffaw and add to the insult he barked across the lawn. There, under a large tree sat a pale, boy with hair the colour of corn silk. His black and green robes covered his scrawny body despite the heat of the afternoon and a thick book lay open in his lap. He glared up at James through his hair, which brushed just above his pale lips when he moved his head to look.

"Shove off, Potter. Don't you have better things to do?" Scorpius Malfoy snarled back aggressively, but made no attempt to confront the older boy. "Think you'd learn after failing Potions so many times that there are more important things than your enormous, ugly head."

"Oh, I suppose you think Potions is the most important thing in the world then?" The boy standing at James' right, Bruno, was the one who spoke now, eager to come to his friend's defense. Bruno Lynch practically worshiped the ground James walked on, and had since they were first years. James didn't mind the adoration too much, but the mindless following Bruno had a tendency to do… well, that was an entirely different story.

As James and Bruno moved towards Scorpius, the other boys quickly followed. They made a semicircle around him, ready to harass him to his wit's end.

Scorpius slammed his book shut and stood up. "Yeah, in fact, I do. It's more important than flying around on broomsticks throwing balls at one another all day, leastways." Several fists clenched at his words. Scorpius made no secret of his distaste for Quidditch, but normally he would have been wiser than to insult the sport in front of half of Gryffindor's Quidditch team. Today, he was feeling a bit reckless.

James, along with his cousin Fred Weasley, was a Chaser. Bruno Lynch and Levi Summerby, easily the largest of the group were the Beaters for the team, and Edward Coote was their prized Seeker. It was the first year in quite some time that Gryffindor had an all-boys Quidditch team. All of them were fairly rough-and-tumble, fiercely competitive, and definitely not above cheating in any sense of the word. Uncharacteristic of Gryffindor's spirit, this year's Quidditch team didn't mind playing dirty and breaking rules if it meant they would win. Scorpius didn't really like Quidditch, but he especially didn't like the ruthless Gryffindor Quidditch players, who had harassed him on more than one occasion.

"Oh yes, your little chemistry set is so much better than Quidditch," the snide remark came from Edward this time. He was the smallest of the group but still by no means small, especially for a Seeker. Normally Seekers were light and compact, but Edward was sturdily built. Evidence of his rough playing tactics took the form of scars along his arms and jaw.

"That's right. It is." Scorpius stepped right up to James and looked him square in the eye, glaring venomously. In spite of his bravado, Scorpius knew he was no match for James. The eldest Potter was a bit taller than he, shoulders easily broader, and he was noticeably more muscular.

"If I didn't know better," James drawled. "I'd say you're jealous, ickle Scorpy. Jealous that you can't play Quidditch." He shoved Scorpius hard. "Is it because you have absolutely no talent, or is it because your coward daddy won't let you?"

"Don't you dare talk about my father—" Scorpius lunged at James, but before he could throw a punch, James caught him in a headlock. As he struggled, the other boys grabbed his thin arms, preparing to throw him into the nearby black lake.

James turned his back toward the castle and almost loosened his grip on the smaller boy to let him plunge face first into the water when –

"James, there you are." Out of the corner of his eye, James saw that a girl with dark red hair had come to the tree, reaching to touch his arm. "I can't help you with Arithmancy if you don't try to help yourself, you know."

"Kate," James inhaled sharply and looked over his shoulder at the petite girl as the rest of the boys moved to block Scorpius from view. "You know, I forgot all about tutoring today… I'm _really_ sorry."

"It's alright, I guess. Your loss," said the girl called Kate. She looked suspiciously at the group of boys. "What are you lot doing out here by the lake anyway?"

"Oh, nothing… nothing at all. Just, uh, devising a practice plan for Quidditch," James lied.

"Right." Kate raised a brow and folded her arms over her chest. It was more or less common fact that the Gryffindor Quidditch team never had a plan for practice. Everyone knew that every time the team convened on the pitch, they all sat on their brooms and mucked around for a good hour before one of them got hungry and called it quits. It had been that way since James had become captain in his fifth year.

"Well, in any case, I'll be helping Professor Babbling with the book inventory when you decide a tutoring appointment is worthy of y—" she paused midsentence when she caught sight of the glimmer of blonde hair from beneath James's arm. She pulled his arm roughly, causing him to let go of Scorpius, who fell to the ground in a heap. "James! Haven't I asked you to leave him alone?"

Any other person would have looked away guiltily, but not James Sirius Potter. "Kate, he started it."

"I have a really hard time believing that," Kate growled and shoved James aside with her shoulder. She picked up Scorpius's book and handed it to him once he stood and brushed himself off. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, wee little Malfoy needs a girl to protect him!" Bruno shoved Scorpius when he moved to leave. James and the rest howled with laughter as Scorpius tripped and almost fell to the ground.

Kate elbowed James hard in the ribs, but he continued to laugh his loud, barking laugh. "Scorpius, wait." She began to follow the Slytherin, but he turned on his heels to face them, halting her in her tracks.

"Piss off!" He glared down at Kate as he spoke. "Both of you." He stormed into the castle without looking behind him again, leaving the Gryffindors wailing with laughter and Kate looking rather torn.

Compromising, she turned to James and spat, "You're really something, James Potter." With that, she followed quickly after Scorpius and disappeared into the castle.

After a moment, Levi spoke. "Reckon she won't be talking to you for awhile."

James gave a noncommittal shrug and replied, "Eh, she'll come around. She always does." At that, he grinned cheekily. The boys burst into laughter again as Levi clapped him on the back.

Inside the castle, Scorpius trudged his way toward the dungeons, having lost most of his momentum upon reaching the castle. There wasn't a day that went by where James and his goons left Scorpius well enough alone, despite Kate's best efforts to stop them. He would be surprised if they even listened to her at all; she was a Slytherin, after all. That lot really wasn't the type to warm up to Slytherins, no matter how well they had redefined the meaning of the word. Regardless of the recent cleansing of Slytherin's bad reputation, some people still held credence in the stigma associated with the house of cunning. However, he supposed James's only reason for listening to Kate was "she's a Slytherin, but a bloody hot one at that," as he'd overheard the Gryffindor say to his mates one day.

Scorpius stopped once he reached the bottom of the main staircase that led to the dungeons. He didn't want to face the common room just yet. Even within his house, he didn't have a very good reputation. His father was _the_ disgrace of pureblood society. Anyone who wasn't a child of a rich pureblood family that hated his family's slowly degenerating legacy was a snotty neo-elitist who shunned radical opinions of either side of the argument. Neutrality was their motto, and Scorpius's family history was instilled in anything but. Still, the Slytherins tended to leave him alone as long as he remained inconspicuous, which was better than being thrown into a lake or turned into a ferret.

He leaned against the stone wall and sighed softly, feeling its coolness against his skin beginning to calm him. No matter what anyone else said about the dungeons being dark, dank and dreary, Scorpius always felt a sort of tranquility when he was protected by them. He closed his eyes and stood there for a few moments. Only when he felt a warm hand on his arm did he open his eyes and look down to see a pair of bright green eyes staring up at him. "Kate."

"Look, I didn't mean to upset you, I just didn't want to see you hurt," Kate told him as he brushed off her arm and began to walk toward the Slytherin common room. She followed after him. "And I really have been telling him to leave you alone, but when he's around his friends, he just doesn't care."

Scorpius stopped abruptly and turned to look at her. "Imagine that, James Potter not caring. Why are you even _with _him? You know he doesn't care about you, Kate. He just likes you because of your tits."

"Scorpius!" Self-consciously, Kate folded her arms over her chest—average size for her age, but apparently enough to make James like her—and kicked him in the shin. "That's not true."

"It is and you know it. Maybe because he thinks you're a challenge…" Scorpius began to think aloud. "But I guess not because he's obviously walking all over you already."

"What is your problem?" Kate grabbed Scorpius as roughly by the shoulder as her diminutive stature allowed her and spun him around. "I know you don't like him, but I didn't think you'd be this petty about it."

"Petty? Kate, he almost threw me in the lake! I understand that he's your boyfriend now and he's important to you and all that," Scorpius told her emphatically, "but he's a complete prick. You said it yourself, he doesn't care when he's around his friends. Maybe that means one day he'll throw you in the lake, or worse."

"I don't know what kind of person you really think he is, but James would never hurt me. He might be a prig, but he's not a horrible person," Kate insisted. They had reached the common room and the portrait that guarded the entrance was becoming impatient with them as they continued to argue.

"Well, are ye comin' in or not?" the portrait's subject, a bony old man in a cloak, sniveled. "Get gabbin' or get goin'."

Kate and Scorpius both turned to him and yelled, "Shut up!" before going at each other again as the old man slunk away, muttering darkly.

"Look, Kate, I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about _you_." Scorpius finally sighed and raised his hands in defeat. "We've been friends for as long as either of us remembers and it's stupid that we're letting him come between us like this. I just don't want to see you hurt. It would kill me if he did something to you and I wasn't there to stop it."

It was true: Katharina Nott had been Scorpius's best—really, only—friend for as long as he could remember. Her father, Theodore, had been one of few still on good terms with the Malfoy family despite its involvement in the war. Theodore was one of the first to welcome them back to polite society, and while the Malfoys were still walking on eggshells around everyone else, they could breathe a sigh of relief around the Notts, who opened their home to the family whenever they needed it.

Kate pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest. "You're my best friend, Scor. I understand the concern, and I appreciate it, but not if it's going to make you hostile like this. Just try to ignore him, okay?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes and moved in front of the portrait to go into the common room. "Yeah, whatever Kate."

The old man reappeared in the portrait and glared beadily at the pair. "Get gabbin' or get goin'."

"Wolfsbane. Now shut up and let us in."


	2. Chapter Two

_Title: The Window_

_Author: Grim Noire_

_Disclaimer: Harry Potter, et al, belongs to J.K. Rowling, I claim nothing blahblahblah. The OCs are my creation._

_Author's Note: Working title, for now. Here be OC's. Don't like it? Don't read. Otherwise, enjoy. All constructive crit is encouraged._

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"Okay, wait, so then I … add…?"

"Right, add all the numbers to get a total. J-A-M-E-S- P-O-T-T-E-R. That's forty-three."

"Uh-huh, and then I add four and three… to get seven?"

"Exactly. I think you're finally getting the hang of this." Kate Nott sat back and admired her accomplishment. Teaching a seventh year Gryffindor Arithmancy was no easy task, especially when it was getting late and all he wanted to do was cuddle. Although James Potter's version of cuddling could more accurately be called snogging and frottage most of the time, sometimes he actually did just want to cuddle. Those were rare blessed days Kate thanked Merlin for each time they occurred.

"Well, now that I've got that figured out… what does it mean?" James scratched his head full of shaggy, curly chestnut-coloured hair and glanced at his girlfriend, who was busy scribbling something down with her pencil.

"Bright and understanding, you enjoy hard work and challenges," Kate recited. "Serious and scholarly—." Here, she muffled a chuckle with her hand. "But with a tendency to be pessimistic and insecure. That's your character number, which is pretty much your general personality."

"Think it fits me?" he asked, smirking at her as he leaned over to read what she had written. "That's odd."

"Hm?" In turn, she looked up at him as he read over her shoulder, but noticed he wasn't looking at her paper, but rather the pencil she held in her left hand. "What's odd?"

"You're using a pencil." He stated.

"Oh, yeah, it's something I picked up from my mum." Kate shrugged and continued writing.

"So she's a Muggle, then?" James asked interestedly.

"Well, yeah, _was_. My stepmother… absolutely not." She pressed her lips together pensively for a moment and went back to her business.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I didn't know." James immediately felt just the littlest bit awful for bringing it up. He hadn't known Kate's mother died, otherwise he wouldn't have mentioned it. He rarely felt guilty about anything, but at the moment he was feeling like quite the arse.

"It's fine," Kate said though she bristled a bit at the comforting arm he wrapped around her. "I was young… it's just one of those things that you tend to get desensitized to after awhile." She cleared her throat and resumed her tutoring. "If you add just the vowels together, that's your heart number, which is what you're really like on the inside. That's eight for you." Before he could ask her to elaborate on the result, she supplied him with his answer. "Practical, ambitious, generally successful, but also greedy, jealous, domineering, and power-hungry."

"Now that's more like it!" James chuckled and leaned toward Kate again, this time to rest his chin on her shoulder and kiss her neck softly. She let him wrap his arms around her waist but didn't stop writing or put her pencil down.

"Your social number's the same. That's how everyone else perceives you." For a moment, she was silent as James continued to assault her neck with sloppy kisses. Then, dead-pan, she spoke, "Eight is the most spontaneous of the numbers."

_Spontaneous, eh?_ James thought, and without warning, lifted Kate off her chair with one arm and placed her on the table in front of them, leaning heavily into her to kiss her passionately, his free hand moving down the front of her shirt. When she wrapped her legs around his waist to keep from losing her balance, he took it as a sign of encouragement and slipped his hand beneath her shirt, feeling the soft, warm skin of her abdomen. "How's that for spontaneous?"

"Predictable," she murmured against his lips.

"Huh?" He pulled back a bit, clearly bewildered.

"See, I knew you were going to do something to prove your spontaneity, so you weren't really being spontaneous at all," Kate told him matter-of-factly. He still stared at her, confused. "Well, I didn't tell you to stop, stupid." Eagerly, he dove in again for round two.

James had just finished unfastening the last of the pearly white buttons that held Kate's school shirt closed when the door to the otherwise empty Arithmancy classroom creaked open and a high-pitched, drunken cackle filled the dimly lit room.

"And then he said to me, 'Pass me the essence of _Sarpa salpa_, would you, Abi?' And I said, 'What? That was _Sarpa salpa _oil? I thought it was pumpkin juice!'" Professor Abilene Babbling, dignified instructor of Arithmancy, but otherwise completely undignified, even almost trashy, stumbled into the classroom adjoined to her office, escorted by a student and leaning heavily on Darling Rosier, the tiny school nurse, who looked quite flustered under the weight of Professor Babbling.

"Now, Abilene, I know you've only had a few, but you really need to stop drinking so much. It's positively bad for your liver…" Darling's voice was soft but firm, and although she was quite small in stature and very vulnerable-looking, she commanded an air of authority unlike many of the students had ever seen. The curly-haired Ravenclaw alumna was the granddaughter of Poppy Pomfrey, who had retired from her long-time post as Hogwarts's nurse to pursue the safari life. Although Darling was quite young to hold such a formidable job, she was certainly nearly overqualified and the Headmistress had welcomed her warmly after she'd eradicated a rather nasty bout of Fwooper pox swept through the school the year she began working there.

"Just get plenty of rest so you don't hurt yourself, or worse, a student," Darling told her sternly as she let the other woman go now that she was securely in her office. "Make sure she gets in safely," she told the boy who had escorted the professor as she bustled out the door. "I have more important things to take care of than a drunkard."

Professor Babbling had begun to open the door to her office, aided by her student escort, when the squeak of a table from across the room caught her attention. "Eh?" She stumbled away from her door, further into the classroom to investigate.

Abilene Babbling, the daughter of Hogwarts's Arithmancy professor, had been awarded the position of Arithmancy teacher upon Septima Vector's retirement from the post shortly after the Second War. Abilene was highly skilled in Arithmancy, but had a drinking problem that was no secret to anyone. Normally, she kept herself sober enough to teach classes during the day, but the minute the dinner bell rang, she was already throwing back her third or fourth tankard of ale.

Professor Babbling was a former Slytherin, and her affinity for green clothing showed it. Her dark skin was flawless, her eyes dark like chocolate, and her build tall and voluptuous. She usually wore her wavy black hair in a peculiar style for which she was renowned, one which resembled a lionfish's spines. In fact, her whole appearance vaguely resembled a lionfish—interesting and exotic, and yet dangerous when provoked.

"What's that? Someone in here?" she called into the darkened room, her drunkenness blurring her vision too much to see properly. Squinting, she stepped closer to the two snogging students until she had just about bumped into the table. "Oh, hello there, dears."

James and Kate simultaneously jumped and moved away from one another, looking around abashedly as they adjusted their clothing. "P-professor Babbling," Kate choked as soon as she had quickly pulled her robes closed to cover her open shirt. "I was just, uh, tutoring James like you asked."

"Oh of course you were! Well, I certainly wish you good luck, Mr. Potter. The next exam is a bugger!" Professor Babbling winked at the flustered James, and giggled, before skipping back to her open office door and disappeared, slamming the heavy door shut behind her.

"Merlin…" James breathed a sigh of relief before it caught in his throat again at the sound of footsteps coming from the shadows.

"Tutoring, eh?" The student who had escorted Professor Babbling was not drunk and had in fact witnessed the snogging pair. Scorpius Malfoy was not very pleased to see James Potter snogging his best friend in an empty classroom after hours. Kate was the prefect, not he, and there she was breaking the very rules she was supposed to uphold. He was being too critical though. If it were anyone else, he wouldn't have given a damn, but seeing Potter running his grubby hands all over Kate, _his _Kate, was enough to make him want to vomit. "Looked a lot more like sucking face to me."

"Well, I _was_ tutoring him…" Kate admitted, staring at the floor sheepishly. She folded her arms over her chest to keep her robes from coming open and watched James as he frantically slid the Arithmancy textbook and all of his notes as well as Kate's into his schoolbag. He wasn't nearly as flustered as Kate, whose cheeks seemed to darken to match her hair.

"Sure. In a dark, empty classroom," Scorpius scoffed.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" shouted James brashly. "You're just jealous that you're not failing a subject so you can be tutored by her."

Both Scorpius and Kate stared dubiously at James for a moment. Kate covered her face with her palm, but it was Scorpius who spoke. "What? That doesn't even…" he groaned, aggravated. "You're a real idiot, Potter."

"Will you two just stop it for five minutes?" Kate hissed as James made a move to charge at Scorpius. "Seriously, grow up. We're not kids anymore. Stop acting like first years and start acting like adults."

"You should talk, Miss Prefect." Scorpius scowled and moved away from James, careful not to turn his back completely as he started toward the classroom door. "Isn't it sort of your job to keep students from shagging in empty classrooms? I wonder, can a prefect take points away from herself? Not that you would anyway, since obviously you seem to think you've done nothing wrong."

"Scorpius, what is _wrong_ with you?" Kate followed him to the door, glowering furiously. "You're out of control." Kate had always known Scorpius to be a relatively passive individual. He never took out his anger aggressively but usually just let it slide right off him. Lately, though, he had become almost belligerent, especially towards her. She had never seen him act like this towards anyone.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with _you_ Kate? You're the one shacked up with Hogwarts's Golden Boy on some table in an empty classroom. It's disgusting. I don't even want to look at you." It wasn't a lie. Scorpius couldn't look at her without having to curb the strong desire to turn James's face into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp. Sure, Kate had some hand in it, but he'd be damned if she was entirely eager to be disgustingly affectionate with anyone in a classroom of all places. She had been acting different lately, ignoring him and forgoing their usual rituals, routines they had been doing since they were first years. Maybe he was even the slightest bit jealous, but he wasn't completely overreacting. It was unfair that she just cast him aside like this without warning, especially for someone like Potter…

He felt the bile rise in his throat and could no longer stand to stay in the classroom with them. He turned and stormed out, resisting the urge to run as fast as he could, as far away from the nightmare the situation had become. It would take a miracle to get on Kate's good graces after that. He was probably digging himself a deeper hole by being stubborn, but he just couldn't sit back and accept the fact that Kate was truly happy with James. She seemed to enjoy herself around him for the most part, but every so often when she thought no one was looking, Scorpius swore he caught a look of emptiness in her eyes. It barely changed her expression, but it spoke volumes regardless. Kate deserved nothing but the best, and James Potter certainly was not it.

As he walked away from Kate and James for what seemed to be the hundredth time that week, from the other side of the door, he heard her half-scream, "Goddamnit!" He disappeared into the darkened corridor to make his return to the common room.

Moments later, Kate burst out of the classroom in the middle of a heated diatribe directed at James. "I don't care if he starts it, James! You can't say things like that to him, it only fuels him. You just need to leave him alone. I've asked him to stop too, but if you keep provoking him it's not going to make it stop. You two are driving me mad!"

"Kate, he's an ass! Why are you even friends with him?" James shot back. "You can't _actually_ like him."

Scorpius, who hadn't gotten very far when they finally got into the hallway, peered around the corner to see the two arguing. He popped back around the corner and leaned against the wall, out of sight, but still within earshot. He should have gone, but his interest was piqued at the question.

Kate was quick to rush to Scorpius's defense. She crossed her arms over her chest, one hip jutting out, glaring at James, as was her typical angry posture. "Well, as hard as it may be for you to handle, James, I _do_ like Scorpius. Regardless of how you feel about him! He's been my best friend for as long as I can remember and he knows things about me that no one else does."

"Oh?" James snarled, almost suspiciously. "Things like what?"

"James!" Kate shrieked at the implication and shoved him.

He was going to hit Kate, Scorpius was sure of it. He had seen it too many times before to stand there and let it happen. His mother's father had taken to slapping around his grandmother time and again for something as stupid as looking at him the wrong way. He was not going to let James hit Kate. Scorpius had just barely seen Kate shove him, then James raise his arm when he leapt from behind the wall, misjudging the other boy's actions. He pointed his wand at James and with a flick, shouted, "_PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!_"

James went rigid and fell to the floor, his body practically a straight line. Kate immediately cried out and dropped to her knees next to James, looking around, dazed, for the assailant, her slim wand already drawn. She murmured the counter spell to the Body Bind and stood up, marching angrily toward Scorpius when she finally saw him standing at the other end of the hall.

"What the hell is _wrong_ with you?" she screeched at him.

James had already begun to regain the use of his limbs and groaned on the floor, rubbing his head where it made contact with the stone floor.

"Kate, I… I thought he was going to hit you," Scorpius anxiously explained, holding his hands up defensively as she neared.

"You're lucky I don't hit you, Scorpius Malfoy!" With that, she pounced on him. The impact sent him to the ground and she toppled to the ground with him, throwing punches at his face.


	3. Chapter Three

"So let me get this straight." School nurse Darling Rosier blinked quizzically as she tried to piece together the story she was just told. "She punched you because you cursed him because you thought he was going to hit her?" When Scorpius Malfoy nodded, unwilling to speak because of his busted lip, Darling raised a brow. "Uh-huh. Do I need to tell the Headmistress about this, or do you think you three can sort it out by yourselves?"

When Scorpius gave her a shrug, she sighed and looked him over to assess the damage. "Bizarre as it sounds, I believe you. I don't think anybody in the world is stupid enough to try to pull off that story if it didn't actually happen," she muttered. Then, she glanced sideways at James and amended, "Well, almost nobody is."

Scorpius let out a snort which quickly turned into a yowl as he clutched his nose in pain.

"Oh, I guess I should have told you your nose was broken before you decided to do anything stupid. I didn't think snorting would hurt it though." Darling almost seemed sheepish, but shrugged and disappeared into the next room. Scorpius listened to the sounds of her rooting around in the apothecary and meanwhile glared over his shoulder at the other side of the hospital wing. James had flopped on a hospital bed and Scorpius wasn't sure if he was feigning fatigue or just being an idiot as usual. Kate sat at the end of another bed, staring into space as one of the nurse's student aides wrapped her bleeding knuckles with bandages, seeming to talk her ear off.

"That's the only thing you really have to worry about. Your lip is split, but that should only cause some minor discomfort when you eat, as long as you don't do any, er, strenuous mouth activities," Darling advised as she came back into the main room and handed Scorpius a small vial of a cloudy blue liquid. "I've mended your nose, but it's still a bit crooked so you should take a bit of this every hour or so until it goes back to normal. Unless of course you like the aquiline look, in which case by all means you can keep your nose that way."

Scorpius took the potion from her and gave a small sigh of relief when she told him his nose would be back to normal. Although he wasn't entirely concerned about his appearance, he didn't fancy the idea of looking like a Roman bust for the rest of his life.

Abruptly, Ted Lupin burst into the hospital wing, diverting his attention. Out of breath, the young Defense Against Dark Arts professor leaned against a bedpost to catch his breath and then rushed to Scorpius and Darling. "I heard there was a fight. Is everything alright, Darla?"

Darling seemed to blush furiously at the arrival of the man, whose hair was rapidly changing from a violent shade of turquoise to dark brown. She turned away from him slightly to hide her blush as she put away her mending supplies and muttered, "_Was_ being the operative word there, Ted. Everything's fine and sorted out, just some scratches. Nothing I can't fix."

"I don't think there's anything you can't fix," Ted admired as he followed her back into the supply room. "Say, what are you doing this Saturday?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes as he watched the pair disappear into the next room. Ted Lupin was the son of his father's cousin, but as Andromeda Black had been estranged from the Black family before Scorpius was born, he wasn't exactly on familiar terms with the Metamorphmagus. Neither held animosity for the other, though, which Scorpius supposed was a good thing considering Ted had been his teacher since Scorpius was a third year. Even having been raised like a brother to the Potters, Ted didn't seem to hold any bias towards them either. It was the opposite of what Scorpius had expected.

Most of the Hogwarts teachers nowadays held less biases than the older generations, but there was still some obvious favoritism among them. Professor Babbling the younger was one of the biggest culprits of this. Every year, for each Quidditch match during which Slytherin played she could be seen howling in the stands for her former house's victory. In class, she often awarded Slytherins points for their knowledge (which was often, as Kate was her star pupil) while overlooking the other houses entirely, no matter how enthusiastic they were to answer. Professor Longbottom was of course always eager to cheer on Gryffindor, and he and Babbling had a healthy rivalry between them. He was nowhere near as ferocious as she was when it came down to it though.

Scorpius was just about to grab his things and leave when he heard Darling call from the next room, "Boys, you can leave now; it's almost past curfew. Kate, I'd like to have a word with you in before you go if you don't mind though."

Scorpius raised a brow at this news, but didn't care enough to really dwell on the thought. As he passed Kate, he ignored her completely and threw a sneer in the direction of her boyfriend. He didn't see it though and swung his bag over his shoulder, leaving through the door that led into the opposite corridor. Scorpius stepped out into the hall and began toward his common room.

By the time the next morning's breakfast had come around, Scorpius's crooked, broken nose was starting to look like its normal straight self again. Despite the fact that he was feeling much better, as he walked into the Great Hall he couldn't help but notice that James and his band of buffoons were pointing and laughing at his black eye and split lip. Both had been the result of Kate's wrath the night before. It wasn't the first physical altercation they'd ever had, but it certainly was the closest she'd gotten to actually hurting him.

He ignored the gawking Gryffindors and took a seat at the Slytherin table. Most of the Slytherins weren't early risers so the table was practically empty, save a few sixth year girls that looked his way, glared, and quickly returned to their business jabbering like chimpanzees. No doubt word had gotten around that he had gotten on Kate's bad side. Most of Slytherin house absolutely adored her, so crossing Kate was crossing the rest of the house too. He ignored the girls and poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice.

As he was spreading blackberry jam over his toast, the Hall filled with the chattering of the half dozen or so of Slytherin girls that filled its doorway. The gaggle moved in like a swarm of angry bees, and Scorpius could see that the group was comprised of Apikalia Avery, Cholpon Derrick, Tara Ivanova, Roxane Macmillan, Romana Montague, Olivia Vaisey, and Isabelle Yaxley, all of whom were Kate's dorm mates and her "entourage" as they liked to call themselves. They sat down away from Scorpius, but were still close enough for him to hear their conversation.

"I heard he hexed James because he wants Kate for himself," chirped Isabelle. Although most of the girls in the group were gossips, Isabelle was the most notorious blabbermouth. It was no wonder why, as her mother, Pansy Parkinson, had taken over Rita Skeeter's business of stretching the truth in her daily columns for the _Daily Prophet_. Isabelle could have easily been attractive if she didn't run her mouth so much. She was a lean girl with wavy chestnut hair was worn in a sophisticated style. She had lightly tanned skin and dark eyes to go with her dark hair. Her prominent cheekbones made her stand out exceptionally among the others.

"Oh, what a cad. Knowing the way his father was in school, I'd believe it," Olivia Vaisey verified Isabelle's testimony. She pursed her thin lips, then her turquoise eyes widened as she added confidentially, "I've heard stories." The girls looked up sharply when they heard a groan come from Scorpius.

"Well, don't jump to deny it, Malfoy," Tara scoffed. Horse-toothed, Tara was considerably unattractive despite having two very attractive, famous Russians for parents. Her father, Fyodor (who had kept his mother's last name), was the son of the Bulgarian Quidditch team's acclaimed seeker, Elena Ivanova. Tara herself was tall and awkward with a boyish build, hooded brown eyes, and short hair the color of autumn leaves. Her chin was very pointy and her skin was on the verge of being pasty.

"Deny what?" Scorpius raised a brow, staring at the girls. "It's none of your business anyway. Nothing happened, so bugger off."

"Your nose says otherwise. Looks like a great old bird beak that does," said Apikalia, "We should start calling you Bird Beak. Birdie Beak Malfoy." She, Olivia and Tara broke off into a fit of obnoxious giggling as Cholpon and Romana looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

Apart from Kate, Cholpon and Romana were probably the least involved in the gossiping that went on within the walls of the Slytherin girls' dormitories. Romana was a sensible girl of tall stature. She wore her wavy black hair in a thick ponytail that didn't hide her high forehead. She had wide gray eyes that seemed austere against her tan skin. She played as Keeper on Slytherin's Quidditch team.

Cholpon was also on the Quidditch team, although she played as a Beater. Slytherin rarely ever permitted females to be on their team, especially as Beaters, but since Scorpius's fourth year, he had noticed an increase of females on the team. He'd never really paid attention to Quidditch until Kate made the house team as a Chaser. He still didn't like Quidditch, but he was happy to see Kate enjoying herself.

"Hey, shut up you lot," Cholpon squinted her teal eyes and hissed at her housemates, flicking her curly, sand-colored hair out of her face as she turned her head. A hush fell over them and Scorpius turned to see why. Kate had appeared at the entrance to the Great Hall. Regardless of the fact that James saw her and stood to make his way to her, she ignored him and began toward the Slytherin table.

Wordlessly, Kate sat in the seat next to Scorpius. She poured herself a glass of apple juice and he resumed spreading jam on his toast. For awhile, they ate in silence next to each other, until Kate finally said, "Look, I know I overreacted last night, but what you did was really stupid, regardless of your noble intentions. I know it's really hard for you to trust James, but I need you to understand that he would never lay a hand on me." She paused for a moment to wipe the corners of her mouth with her napkin, but she really seemed to be collecting her thoughts. "I'm not going to apologize, and I really don't want an apology, either," she cut Scorpius off as he was about to speak, and added, "but I'm not proud of the way I handled it, and you shouldn't be proud of what you did either."

Scorpius let out a sigh and opened his mouth to talk again, but she interrupted him once more, "I've done some thinking, and I've decided that it would be best for everyone if I just… break up with James."

Silent for a moment, Scorpius wasn't quite sure what he could say to that. He wanted to tell her "that's great!" but even though he was thinking that, of course he couldn't say it to her. Even so, it didn't seem entirely too good for him either. Just because she was breaking up with James didn't mean that she wanted to go back to the way things were. He doubted they ever would, but he had some hope that maybe…

"It doesn't mean much of anything, though. I still like him, and borrowing that he doesn't get too angry by my breaking things off with him, he'll probably still return the feeling. I just don't want there to be this ridiculous animosity between you anymore," she said, but her last words didn't sound entirely convincing. She was resigned to the fact that James and Scorpius would always go at each other, but as long as she was out of the picture, at least she didn't feel responsible for it. "I'm mad at you, Scorp, but I'm still your friend, and I don't want you to think I'm abandoning you because my boyfriend hates you, if that's what you've been getting to thinking lately."

Scorpius gave a shrug, neither denying nor confirming her words, although she had pretty much hit the nail on the head. His biggest problem with her dating James wasn't that it was James she was dating—the rest of Slytherin house even approved of their relationship, despite James being a Gryffindor—but that they spent less and less time together, and now some days she just felt like a complete stranger. They had gone from knowing everything about each other to keeping secrets and hiding things, turning their backs on the other… He hadn't been a very good friend, but Kate was to blame for things too.

"So when are you going to tell him?" It was Roxane who broke the silence. She and the other girls had been listening intently to the conversation, although Cholpon and Romana feigned disinterest. The others were practically hanging off the edges of their seats, craning their necks to hear the quietest parts of the conversation.

Both Kate and Scorpius looked up sharply at the question. The girls quickly sat up straight and occupied themselves elsewhere as Roxane balked. "Cripes, I was just asking."


	4. Chapter Four

Breakfast had gone by rather uneventfully after its initial surprises. After Scorpius had finished his last waffle, he and Kate left together, much to James's dismay, as he had attempted to escort Kate out to her first class of the morning. Instead, he trailed a small distance behind them, close enough to hear their conversation, but far enough away so that he didn't appear to be walking with them.

"So did you do the homework Professor Bellevue assigned?" Scorpius asked, trying to make small talk.

Professor Bellevue was the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts. Years before Scorpius and Kate had even started at Hogwarts, the newly appointed Headmistress Shacklebolt, wife of the prodigious Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt, had instated a policy that mandated the teaching of Muggle Studies to the students. From then on, it had become a core class which students were required to take each year. At the seventh year level, because of the strain of N.E.W.T.s-level courses, Muggle Studies was considerably lower pressure than during other years.

Knowing Kate, she probably hadn't done the homework. It wasn't that Kate was a bad student (in fact, quite the opposite as she was one of the best in their year); it was just that as a Halfblood witch, the Muggle world was a literal second nature to her. Scorpius didn't know much about the Muggle part of her childhood, being a Malfoy, but he gathered that much.

Kate looked up at him dubiously. "Oh yeah," she scoffed, "I really need to read up on the functionality of electricity." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey now," Scorpius replied lightly, "not all of us know so much about Muggles like you, Kate."

"Yeah, that's because you didn't grow up with a Muggle mother. Do your parents even have electricity?" Kate stopped in front of the classroom and looked through her bag. "Oh, bollocks."

"Hm?" Scorpius threw a questioning look her way.

"I must've forgotten my book in the Great Hall. I'll be right back." With that, Kate hurried back down the hall to retrieve her book, leaving Scorpius alone. He glanced at the pocket watch he kept in his robes, a gift from his mother after she'd gotten letters home from all of his professors for being late because he had no concept of time whatsoever. He still had a few minutes before class would start so he dawdled a little bit around the door to the classroom, waiting for Kate to come back.

Before he knew what had happened, James came at him from behind and shoved him hard enough to send him reeling. "What the hell?" Scorpius started to say, turning around with his fist balled and held out towards James. It wasn't uncommon that one of the huskier boys of the school would accidentally—sometimes purposely—shove Scorpius out of the way when they walked down the hall past him, but never hard enough to make him lose balance and almost fall on his face. When he saw James standing there smugly with a smirk on his face and his arms folded over his chest, his face fell. "Potter. What do you want?"

"Barking up that tree again already, I see. You know I told her not to talk to you. Shame she doesn't listen," James started. He turned to look over his shoulder at Kate's retreating form, hardly visible from this distance. "But that's women for you, eh? Not that you would know. The only woman you've ever kissed is dear old mummy, isn't it Malfoy?"

About to throw back a snide remark, Scorpius gritted his teeth and instead turned away from James. "Just shove off, Potter. I'm not in the mood."

"That's too bad." James turned to leave, but instead of actually doing so, he punched Scorpius right in the face. Scorpius doubled over, clutching his nose, which was still healing from the previous night's fight.

"Merlin almighty!" he yelped just as Kate had come back with her book, cheeks flustered from hurrying.

"What the—?" She glanced questioningly at James, but seeing a trail of blood dripping from beneath Scorpius's hands, she rushed to his side, helping him put pressure on his nose. She glared viciously up at James. "What the hell, James?"

"What's going on out here?" Professor Bellevue, upon hearing the commotion, came out of the classroom, demanding an explanation. Jasmine Bellevue was among the youngest staff members at Hogwarts. As such, she had a considerably youthful appearance, with a thin build and ruddy skin. Her amber-colored hair was short and cut into a severe bob. She wore eye makeup around her round, blue eyes—something the other teachers rarely did. Most of the students appreciated her presence, even if they didn't particularly like the class she taught. She was considerably laidback and had a knack for teaching classes in an engaging way that kept even the worst students interested. However, when it came to misbehavior she was very no-nonsense and there were usually no repeat offenders.

"Potter… Potter's punched me," Scorpius told her, his voice muffled from beneath his hands.

When Professor Bellevue sharply turned her gaze to James, he quickly said, "Yeah, only because he said some pretty bad things about my grandmother." It was common knowledge that James's grandmother, the late Lily Evans Potter, was a Muggleborn witch, one who had bravely defied Lord Voldemort in his prime. "You should have heard him, professor." When Professor Bellevue's eyes narrowed like a hawk's as she looked back at Scorpius, he smirked triumphantly, knowing he'd hit a nerve. Professor Bellevue herself was Muggleborn and strongly opposed any opinion that implied Muggleborns were less than their pureblood counterparts.

"Is this true, Mr. Malfoy?" she asked carefully.

"Of course not, Professor. I don't give a damn about blood purity, you know that," Scorpius defended, glaring at James. "Potter's just trying to save his skin."

"I don't believe you would say that either, Scorpius," the professor began, "but given the circumstances, I don't know if I believe that James would just hit you without a reason."

"Because hating me isn't enough of a reason?" Scorpius grumbled. "Professor, I didn't say anything."

"Besides," Kate interjected, looking to Professor Bellevue now. "Even if he had, punching someone is hardly the appropriate response. Even _if_ he'd said something, shouldn't James have just come to you instead of taking matters into his own hands? Isn't that what we're supposed to do?"

"Yes, I suppose it is." Professor Bellevue looked at the three pensively for a moment, before nodding shrewdly. "You're perfectly correct, Kate. That being said, I don't want to hear anymore of this nonsense around my classroom. If you've got an uncontrollable problem urge to hit each other, take it to the Headmistress." She looked beyond them, to the small crowd of students that had gathered, waiting to go to class. "Now run along, Potter, I've got a class to teach. I expect better from you _and_ Mr. Malfoy."

James then left, but not without giving Scorpius a sneer first.

Once they had walked into the classroom and sat down, Professor Bellevue began the lesson. "What was that all about?" Kate muttered under her breath to Scorpius.

He gave a shrug and told her in a muted voice, "I dunno, he just came up to me, said some things about telling you not to talk to me and when I told him to leave me alone, he clocked me."

Kate rolled her eyes and gave an aggravated sigh.

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class, Miss Nott?" Professor Bellevue demanded sharply as she glared in their direction. "I'm sure we'd love to hear exactly why the conveniences of a microwave oven are so frustrating to you."

Kate stared at her abruptly for a moment, before coughing and blurting out, "Cancer. Right. Some people think microwaves…cause cancer?"

Professor Bellevue arched a brow, a little dubious, but nodded. "Yes, some people do believe that, although there's no scientific proof, but I suppose that _is_ relevant." She returned to her lecture, tapping her wand on the microwave oven sitting on her desk that she was using for the demonstration. "A microwave enables you to quickly cook things without magic. For example, if I press this button—" She pressed a button on the microwave. The headmistress had lifted the magic inhibiting electricity on the classroom for Professor Bellevue's electricity lesson, so it lit up and the bag of popcorn inside it began to pop. "Your popcorn will pop."

Muggle Studies class was uneventful as usual, and it wasn't until they were headed to their double Potions that Scorpius spoke to Kate again.

"Are you seriously going to break up with him, Kate?" He had stopped her with his hand on her arm, staring down at her somberly.

She sighed. "I don't know, Scorpius, I really don't. The more I think about it, the more I get confused… and I just really don't need this right now. Too much is going on and this is the last thing I want."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Kate, did something happen that you're not telling me?" She used to tell him everything that went on in her life, and even if she didn't still do that now, he knew when there was something bothering her. To other people, she may have seemed fearless and without care, but Scorpius could tell when she was worried, and right now, she certainly seemed to be. She never looked so distracted otherwise.

"I got an owl last night." She seemed hesitant to speak at first, her voice wavering, but then with a little more courage, she elaborated, "Dad's in hospital. He was taken to St. Mungo's yesterday. He was coughing up blood."

Scorpius let out a dejected sigh. "Kate, I'm really sorry. I never meant for this to happen."

"Yeah, well you haven't done much to stop it either," she shot back sharply and walked briskly into the Potions room to hide her teary eyes from him. Still, she let him sit next to her as they rounded on the Potions tables. They were still a bit early; the professor hadn't come out to start class yet and there were only a few students already in the room, chatting in hushed tones amongst themselves.

Slytherins had double Potions with the Gryffindors, so typically the classroom was segregated heavily by house. Despite the dwindling inter-house hatred, Gryffindors still tended to keep well to themselves when it came to classes they had with the Slytherins. The Slytherins didn't seem to mind too much anyway.

James had come into the classroom with Bruno Lynch, Levi Summerby, and Lincoln Wood, the most boisterous of the seventh year Gryffindor boys. Kate hadn't noticed him as the group sat several rows behind where she and Scorpius were sitting. The rest of the class had begun to file into the room in small groups and soon the tables were filled and they were waiting on the teacher.

Kate could hear Olivia Vaisey and Isabelle Yaxley twittering loudly to the other Slytherin girls when the professor came into the room from her office.

Professor Pandora Lee was perhaps infamous for her nature. She had a biting, almost drawling sort of sarcastic wit that the Slytherins appreciated and by which the Gryffindors seemed to be patronized. She was a relatively young woman with slanted gray eyes and luxurious, straight black hair she wore in a simplistic style. She had facial features that strongly suggested Asian descent and a slim, elegant body. She always seemed to dress in dark clothing, and today was no different.

"I would wish you a good morning," she began, "but I can already tell you that it's not going to be one." She smirked dryly and sat on the edge of her desk. "As you all know by now, the art of potionmaking isn't all about succeeding—although it's very important that you do. Another crucial point of potionmaking is that you are able to overcome challenges of all kinds. Even those that seemed impossible." Several students began whispering under their breath as she got an impish sort of gleam in her eye. As she spoke again, the room hushed.

"Today, we will be brewing Amortentia." No sooner had the words left her mouth than had the class started chattering wildly. "Don't get yourselves too excited, because today, you're not picking your partners." There were several groans, but she continued, "I am." The groaning positively exploded.

"So if you'll please wait until I pair everybody, gather your things and go to the back of the room."

The students all shuffled to take their things with them as they moved to the back of the room, groaning and grunting with disproval.

"Alright, Campbell. Cadwallader. I want you two at this table right here." Professor Lee pointed at the table directly to her left. The Gryffindor girl and the Slytherin boy begrudgingly sat next to each other, each eyeing the other up testily. "Right then. Cattermole, Wood, you two here. Hobday and Entwhistle. Good, good. Malkin and Krum. Warrington and Lynch."

The class watched as one by one, Professor Lee paired the Gryffindors with the Slytherins.

"Weasley and Entwhistle. Zabini and Summerby. Come on now, don't complain. You're adults. Avery and Sloper. Derrick and Wagtail. Ivanova and Cauldwell. Montague and Longbottom. Nott and Creevey. Vaisey and Peasegood. Yaxley and Thruston. And last but not least, Malfoy and Potter."

"Professor you can't be serious!" Scorpius interjected quickly as she finished calling off names.

"But I am, Mr. Malfoy," she told him sharply. "Is there a problem or can we move along?"

When he looked helplessly at Kate, she just covered her face with her palm and groaned. It was going to be a long lesson.

Half an hour into the class, most of the groups were well underway with brewing the potion successfully. A few groups were still floundering to do it correctly, but Professor Lee was quickly helping them back on the right path. Kate was amazed to see that Scorpius and James hadn't killed each other yet. She looked over her shoulder to watch them for a moment. Scorpius was diligently brewing the potion in such a painstaking fashion that he was bent over his cauldron, stirring and adding ingredients precisely. James seemed not to mind that Scorpius was doing all the work and had kicked back, dictating directions from the book to his partner every so often if he did something against instruction.

"Those two still at it?"

Kate turned to her partner, Marjorie Creevey. Marjorie was a tall, thin girl who wore her curly golden hair in a low ponytail tied with a red ribbon. She had large eyes the color of milk chocolate and freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. The two had a mutual friend in Anna Abercrombie, a seventh year girl who captained the all-girl Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Anna was a childhood friend of Kate's, and Marjorie's girlfriend Millaray Pritchard played as a Chaser on the Hufflepuff team. Initially, Kate and Marjorie hadn't been very close, but over the last two school years, they were on very good, friendly terms. It didn't bother Kate at all to be working with Marjorie, even if Potions wasn't the Gryffindor's forte.

She sighed a little and nodded. "I wish they weren't. Or, at least that they weren't so public about it. It's annoying to go down the hall and hear about it from a random Hufflepuff."

"I bet," said Marjorie as she stirred the contents of the cauldron. "I mean, Scorpius isn't exactly being very nice to you about this or anything. He's your best friend so he should at least be happy for you being happy, instead of being miserable about it all the time. Do I stir this four or five times?"

"Five." Kate listened to Marjorie as she continued to chatter, propping her head on her hand, watching the other girl stir.

"Right, anyway," Marjorie continued, "everyone knows that he, y'know, doesn't really like James and all, but that doesn't mean he has to be a big old prat about it like he is. Even if James _is_ the one starting the fights, can't he just walk away? I mean, James hasn't really been the best boyfriend either."

Kate snapped to attention, narrowing her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I just mean that he and Cathleen Derek…" Marjorie trailed off, staring wide eyed at Kate. "I shouldn't have said that."

"What?" Kate asked sharply. "What about Cathleen Derek?"

Looking guiltily at the table, Marjorie murmured, "They just flirt a lot, okay?"

Kate pursed her lips, feeling that Marjorie wasn't being entirely truthful, but didn't press her further. Instead, she dropped the crushed rose petals the instructions indicated into the cauldron.

"I wonder why she's having us brew Amortentia…" Marjorie thought aloud, relieved to change the subject.

Kate welcomed the change in topic and gave a shrug. "Probably no reason other than to torture us. Seems she likes to do that."

The two spent the rest of the class chattering about frivolous things. Ten minutes before the class ended, Professor Lee called everyone to attention again. "Alright, I trust now that you've all done your potion correctly, so we're going to perform a little experiment. The idea of Amortentia is that it gives the imbiber a sense of obsession toward a person. It will wear off, but it is _very_ powerful. If your potion is brewed right, it should have this effect. However, because it's unethical, I can't let you administer it to each other to see if it works. Instead, there's another test. A correctly brewed Amortentia has three things: a mother-of-pearl sheen, spirals of smoke, and the smell of attraction.

"That is, each individual smells Amortentia differently, according to what he or she is attracted to." Professor Lee moved to the table in front of her where Royce Campbell and Tatiana Cadwallader sat with their cauldron. "For example," she began, "I smell peppermint, rain, and burnt wood." She glanced around the room quickly before calling out, "Miss Creevey, what about you? What do you smell?"

Marjorie almost jumped at being called on—it was a rarity in Potions class that she knew an answer so she didn't like to brought to attention very much. "Oh, uhm…" She hesitated, sniffing the potion, and then said, "Honeysuckle, pine and fresh linens."

"And you, Miss Nott?"

Kate leaned forward to smell the potion, several different scents flooding her at once. "Clove," she listed, "broom varnish and old books." She wasn't exactly sure where the last two had come from, but her father always smelled like cloves. It was one of her favorite scents.

"Curious. " Professor Lee gazed around the room again before settling on James and Scorpius. "Potter, Malfoy, you look like you're having fun up there. Tell me about your Amortentia."

James stuck his nose to the cauldron, took a great whiff, and declared, "Pumpkin juice, a new broomstick, and some kind of flower. Lilac, I guess."

Scorpius spoke then, confidently as if he had smelled Amortentia a thousand times before. "Leather, vanilla, and…" He paused, looking apprehensively at James, then at Kate.

"And?" Professor Lee pressed.

"Lilacs," he told her. "The third thing I smell is lilac, professor."

"Well, that's interesting. It looks like Gryffindors and Slytherins can have something in common after all." Professor Lee gave them her typical impish grin and moved back to her desk. "I'd like an essay on the lesson you learned today. It doesn't have to be long, just make it good. Class dismissed."

Kate began to walk out of the classroom when James stopped her. He pulled her close to him, smelled her hair, and then moved back, grinning. "Lilac. I thought so." He slipped his arm around her shoulder and smiled softly at her. "Listen, babe, I'm really sorry about everything this week. I want to make it up to you. Go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?"

Kate started to speak, but was quickly cut off when Scorpius came to her, holding out a book. "Here, Kate," he said. "You forgot your book."

She took it from him, about to bid him goodbye as he turned to leave, but James pulled his arm away from her and grabbed Scorpius instead. "Lilac, Malfoy? What are you playing at?"

Scorpius glanced up at him, confused. "What now, Potter? I have class. Leave me alone."

"You're really pathetic, you know. Don't you have the decency to leave other people's girlfriends alone? I've been really nice about it this whole time, but you just can't seem to get it into your thick, grease-haired skull that you need to stay away from my girlfriend," James growled, shoving Scorpius.

"James, stop it," Kate hissed. "He didn't do anything. Leave him alone."

"Kate, shut up. You're always feeling sorry for him and defending him, and I'm getting to think it's kind of encouraging him," James spat back. He glared at Scorpius, backing him against the wall. "Listen to me, and listen to me good Malfoy." His voice dropped. "You leave my girlfriend alone, or so help me, I _will_ fuck your day up."

"She's not your property, James. You can't keep treating her like you own her. She can do what she pleases," Scorpius shot back. "What happens when you break up, huh?"

James grinned deviously. "Oh, I suppose you'll jump right at her feet again? And you think she'll take _you_ in?"

"Well, at least she might be happy then."

"SHUT YOUR FAT MOUTH, MALFOY!" James bellowed as he tackled Scorpius to the ground. The two began to brawl violently as Kate tried desperately to pull them away from each other. "Stay out of this!" James growled. "Haven't you caused enough trouble?"

Angrily, Kate began to storm off. Professor Lee came out into the hall, saw what was happening and yelled, "Stop it right now!" She flicked her wand and James and Scorpius flew apart violently. "Hold it right there, Nott. I want an explanation."

"You want an explanation?" Kate spat, turning around to face the teacher. "Well, professor, I can't really speak for those two, but I can tell you that I'm sick of them fighting."

Professor Lee raised a brow, clearly not wanting to get involved any further than she had to. She turned to the boys and asked sternly, "What's going on here?"

Scorpius, who already received a black eye from James, grumbled, "Potter attacked me, Professor. You can ask Kate. She saw it." He glared up at Kate.

James, who was huffing to catch his breath, bent over, face bruised, didn't bother to defend himself.

"You three seem to be causing quite a few problems around here." Professor Lee looked at each of the three in turn then declared, "Five points each from Gryffindor and Slytherin for your nonsense. Potter, I hope you didn't have plans for this weekend because you're to serve detention with me Friday and Saturday night. The same goes for you, Malfoy, next weekend, detention. I don't want you two serving together." She turned around to Kate. "As for you, Miss Nott, I really hope you sort your priorities, lest you find yourself in detention as well." She spun on her heel to go back into her classroom, calling over her shoulder, "Five o'clock Friday, Potter. Don't forget, or your sentence will be doubled."

When Professor Lee was out of earshot, James finally got up and cornered Kate. "Look what you've done. You've messed up everything. This is all your fault, Kate. Maybe if you'd just _listen_ to me—"

Kate cut him off before he could continue, "James, maybe I don't want to listen to you. Maybe I don't even want to be around you anymore. I liked you, I really did, but I feel as though you're not even trying. Scorpius at least has done that, but every time he tries to ignore you, you always throw punches. How do you ignore that James? Can't you be the bigger man, for once?"

"Bigger man?" he scoffed. "As if Malfoy will _ever_ be a bigger man than I am."

"Well, in my eyes, he's certainly becoming that," she told him sharply.

"Then why don't you be _his_ girlfriend?" he quipped patronizingly.

"I think I'd like that much better than being yours right now, James Potter!"

"Kate, you don't mean that," James said quickly.

"No, I think I do, James." Kate folded her arms over her chest and glared venomously at him. "I'm sick of you and your immaturity, and your stupid need to have my attention all the time. I have other priorities in life than raining nonstop praise and glory on you. You can't even compromise for me a little bit. I'm done with you, James. Go find yourself another girl."

"Come on, Katie," James pleaded, grabbing her arm. "We can talk about this."

"Enough, James! Go talk about it to someone who cares!" she shrieked. "Maybe Cathleen Derek will!" She shoved him out of her way and stormed out of sight.

Scorpius began to slink off inconspicuously in the same direction but James caught him by the collar. "You're lucky I don't rip your ugly face off, you rat." He let him go and stomped off, but not before hissing, "Watch your slimy back, Malfoy. I'll get you, I swear."

Scorpius groaned to himself, watching the two go off in opposite directions. What had he gotten himself into?


	5. Chapter Five

For a few days after their fight outside the Potions classroom, James had tried to talk to Kate, slinking away with his tail between his legs every time she refused to speak with him. After a week or two of being ignored, it seemed he finally had enough and stopped going near her altogether. Apart from Potions class and Arithmancy, the two classes they had together, they were hardly even in the same room as each other.

September had turned into October, and before anyone seemed to notice, the first Quidditch match of the year was looming on the horizon. Ravenclaw was up against Slytherin, and while nothing was ever as exciting as a Gryffindor versus Slytherin match, anticipation buzzed in the air, especially during dinnertime on the first day of October, a week before the match.

Kate sat between Scorpius and Romana Montague, picking at the soup she had chosen to eat that evening. Ravenclaw was picked as the favorite for the upcoming match, as they had just recruited a new Seeker, fifth year Christy Boot, and rumors were flying around that she was as good as it got. The Slytherin team didn't seem extremely jarred by the idea, but Scorpius noticed that Kate certainly seemed a little antsy. He was sure it wasn't just because of the upcoming game. After all, there was still no word on her father's health, she had just broken up with her boyfriend, and was probably dealing with a shit storm of emotions. He couldn't really blame her, but he was worried about her.

"Kate, are you okay?" he asked softly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Kate shook her head. "Not really, no." She lifted her head and gazed across the room at James, who was sitting at the Gryffindor table, making quite the ruckus as usual. He was loudly relaying some sort of story to his pals, his arm wrapped around a smiling Gryffindor girl who seemed positively pleased to be hanging on him. Cathleen Derek was a sixth year Gryffindor girl, and although she wasn't incredibly attractive, she had arguably the biggest chest Hogwarts had ever seen. It was actually bizarre rather than alluring and seemed to cause her to walk with a hunch. She had narrow gray eyes around which she wore ridiculously bright shades of eye shadow, and wavy brown hair she wore in a style that looked like a peacock's tail.

"I know it's hard Kate, but you just need to forget about him," Romana told her sympathetically. "You can do better than him anyway. There are plenty of fish in the sea, they say. I mean, look at Aran Entwhistle. He's pretty cute."

"I guess, but his twin sister is one of James's exes. That seems like a bad idea no matter how I look at it," Kate replied glumly.

"Yeah, but he's got those dimples…"

Kate sighed at Romana and gave her head a shake. "I think I'm just going to swear off dating for awhile. All it seems to do is get me in trouble."

"Hey, whatever, girlie. Your loss." Romana turned back to the conversation she was having with Cholpon earlier.

"Romana's right," Scorpius declared. "We can't have you moping about like this. It's almost Halloween. It's your favorite."

"Yeah, I guess," said Kate dully. "I still feel terrible though."

"Well, stop feeling sorry for yourself and have some fun," Scorpius told her with a small smile. "I'll help you practice for the game."

"Seriously?" Kate looked at him dubiously. Scorpius hated Quidditch, and even though he seemed to tolerate it for her sake, she didn't think he even knew how to play the game let alone properly ride a broom. They had learned in their first year how to fly, as was mandatory, but beyond that, she didn't think he really knew how to fly well. She remembered even then he was terrible at it.

"Seriously." He smiled again at her, but quickly turned his attention to the staff table as the headmistress began to speak.

"Good evening, students," Headmistress Shacklebolt began with a smile. Celandine Shacklebolt was a short, busty, dark-skinned woman with wide, bright eyes the color of chocolate. Her dark, curly hair was slowly streaking with ash-gray as the years went by, but she wore it in an exotic, artistic style. A former Ravenclaw, she was Head Girl in her seventh year and went on to teach at a prestigious school in Brazil before coming back to England to become a school governor of Hogwarts and a Ministry official. She married Kingsley Shacklebolt, the current Minister of Magic, when he was still just an Auror and became the headmistress of Hogwarts upon Minerva McGonagall's resignation from the position.

It was really quite normal for the Headmistress to speak to the students during dinner. Her first words upon becoming the headmistress were in fact about forging personal relationships with the students to cultivate a better learning atmosphere. 'Students,' she had said, 'are more likely to be receptive to teaching from those with whom they are friendly and comfortable.' By no means did she encourage lax discipline—as she was quite the disciplinarian herself given the situation—but she certainly encouraged every possible option before harsh punishment.

Today, she seemed brimming with excitement to share something, judging by the way she grinned and looked to and fro down the staff table. Several of the less enthusiastic members, Professor Lee included, shifted a bit uncomfortably, but others seemed to be just as excited as Headmistress Shacklebolt. "As you know," she finally began, "every year we hold an annual Halloween feast. This year, we will be continuing that tradition. However, this year in addition to our most wonderful of traditions, we will be having a ball. A masquerade ball."

The Great Hall broke into a cacophony of giggling girls, groaning boys, and excited chatter. The headmistress continued to speak over it, "Owls have been sent to your parents notifying them of the necessity for formal attire, for those of you who don't compulsively bring dress robes every school year," here, she stopped and chuckled, but then continued, "In addition to compulsory formal attire, masks are also mandatory. It _is _a masquerade after all. From what I understand, Hogsmeade's stores will make these masks available this weekend. However, only fourth years and up are permitted to attend the ball. Beyond this, your Heads of House will give you more details.

"The school governors and several charitable patrons have funded this ball, and I, as well as the staff, would hope to all those of you who are able will attend." She finished her speech, sat down, and continued eating, leaving the Great Hall to its discordant buzz again.

Isabelle and Olivia were practically beside themselves with joy, twittering about whom they would bring as dates, what they were going to wear, how they would do their hair, and who was likely to show up dateless. It was enough to make anyone roll her eyes, but still Kate listened as the two babbled.

"Well, as you can imagine," said Olivia, "I'll of course be bringing Leighton. I mean, he _is_ my boyfriend after all, even if he can't dance or tie a tie." She giggled obnoxiously and turned to look down the table at her boyfriend, Leighton Warrington, who was sitting with his back turned to them, talking in hushed tones to the male members of the Slytherin Quidditch team.

The oldest of five children, Leighton Warrington came from an upper middle class family that wasn't quite pureblood royalty but was still respected among the old money families. Leighton wasn't extremely remarkable, and it seemed rather fitting that he and Olivia were together. He had narrow eyes the color of sapphires, straight black hair that he kept cropped near his ears and a sparse growth of stubble on his chin. He had relatively plain features, but a tall, graceful build that was uncharacteristic of Beaters. He seemed considerably unenthusiastic about his relationship with Olivia, but she frequently showered gifts and appreciation upon him, neither of which he seemed to mind at all.

"What about you?" Olivia asked in a failed attempt at casualness, turning to Kate. "I guess you can't take James now can you? So who are _you_ going to go with, Kate?"

Kate gave a noncommittal shrug and told her, "I'm not even really sure if I'm going to go, Olivia. I don't see much of a point. I hate dancing and I'd rather just spend it in the library or doing something actually productive."

Isabelle wrinkled her nose at the thought. "I don't know why anyone would willingly want to spend time in the library."

Olivia sighed patronizingly and smiled wryly. "I think it's just because you won't have a date that you don't want to go. Granted, who _would_ want to go with a ginger like you?"

"I'm not a ginger," Kate hissed.

"Pale skin, freckles, red hair. Yep, you're a ginger." Olivia nodded.

"At least I don't look like an overgrown peacock in need of severe dental work," Kate shot back, turning her attention to her soup to avoid the impending catfight. Olivia was ready to pounce, claws out, but was intercepted by Romana, the strongest of the girls, who held her back.

Despite being on good terms with the other girls in her dorm, Kate and Olivia had never really gotten on well. This was probably due to the bad blood between their families, but no one was really certain. While they were in school, Olivia's mother Demelza and Kate's father had dated for a long time, although on Theodore Nott's part, he did it mostly to please his parents. When he had left school at the age of eighteen and went out into the Muggle world to become a novelist, he met Kate's mother, fell madly in love, broke off his engagement with Demelza, and married Lilianne Casteel instead. Demelza still seemed to hold a grudge to that day, despite finding a husband in Garrett Vaisey, a successful Quidditch manager.

"You still won't be able to get a date," huffed Olivia after she had calmed a bit. She glared at Kate, who continued to eat her soup, trying to look as innocent and uninvolved as possible.

"Mark my words, Olivia, I most certainly will," Kate spat, tired of being insulted. "And _he'll_ know how to tie a tie." She stood, gathered her things, and stormed off, leaving her half-finished dinner.

Scorpius let out a soft sigh, amazed at Kate's ability to be a normal, petty schoolgirl just like the others despite her great capacity for maturity and profundity. Not really wanting to stay with the rest of the girls, he quickly finished his dinner and hurried out after Kate.

When he finally caught up with her just outside the Great Hall, he grabbed her arm gently. "Look, Kate," he said, gazing down at her, "I'll go with you."

Kate almost glared at him, a scowl on her face when she heard Olivia's obnoxious laughter. "Well, they'll all be expecting that. Who else would I take if I didn't have a date?"

Scorpius was a little hurt by the implication that he was her last resort, but he persisted, "Come on, Katie. Give me a chance. I can tie a tie."

Kate smiled softly at him, but frowned again when she heard James's voice through the din. She bit her lip, glancing conspiratorially at Scorpius. She was sure that taking Scorpius and having a great time would make James jealous, just like he was trying to make her jealous by hanging on Cathleen Derek. Despite feeling a bit bad about electing to use her best friend, she still thought it would at least be fun for both of them to go together. She smiled sweetly and told him, "Alright. I'll take you up on that offer."

"Great." Scorpius smiled back at her and together they walked toward the common room.

Later that night after a long practice session on the pitch with Scorpius, Kate trudged through the common room up to the seventh year girls' dormitory. Despite Scorpius's inability to throw a Quaffle to save his life, he was pretty good at catching them before Kate could throw them through the goal hoops. She had initially chalked it up to her own bad throwing because of nerves, but the more she thought about it, she had to admit Scorpius wouldn't make all that bad of a Keeper. She was actually considerably exhausted, having taken most of her frustration out on practice, and had even strained a muscle. Her throwing arm, the left one, ached like hell.

She shuffled into the dormitory, having nothing else in mind but throwing herself onto her bed and sleeping until morning. Unfortunately, that didn't seem like a possibility. No sooner had she stepped into the room than had she been greeted by a chorus of obnoxious giggling and the loud sounds of what could only be gossip falling off her roommates' lips. With a groan, she set her broom and kneepads in one corner, and pulled off her worn black trainers to throw them near her trunk. She glanced around the room, wondering what the other girls were up to this time.

The Slytherin girls' dormitories seemed to echo all the stylistic décor of their dungeon common room without any of the dankness. The furniture was all Victorian style with eight dark wood four-posters arranged around the room in such a way that created the most space. Each bed had silk sheets the color of emeralds, silk hangings of the same color, and pillowcases and accents the color of pearls. Next to each was a small nightstand carved with patterns depicting flowering vines. Atop each sat a candelabrum shaped like three entwined serpents whose mouths held green and pearl-white candles. The floors were hardwood instead of the plush carpet of the other dormitories.

Despite the immaculate tidiness of the other beds, Kate's own bed was hastily put together, the sheets rumpled, one pillow sideways on top of the other. She sat down on her bed, ignoring the other girls' chatter as she peeled off her dirty practice clothing in exchanged for a pair of black sweatpants and a green ribbed sleeveless top—her nightclothes. She pulled her long hair out of its ponytail and began to brush it with the comb that was on her nightstand. Finally, Isabelle's voice caught her attention and she looked up at them.

"Kate, come sit with us," she half-whined, patting an empty spot on the bed where she was sitting. The girls had pushed Olivia's and Romana's beds together and appeared to be styling each other's hair, eating from boxes of chocolate and looking at magazines. Kate raised a brow when she took the sight in. Romana seemed extremely unenthusiastic about Olivia braiding her hair into two long, thick plaits and she could see that Cholpon was sprawled out at the end of the other bed reading a Quidditch magazine. Kate was relieved to see that at least she wasn't the only one who didn't enjoy the girls' slumber parties. Apart from Cholpon and Romana who wore nightclothes similar to Kate's, the other girls were all wearing short, frilly nightgowns in pastel shades.

Awkwardly, Kate walked toward them and very gingerly sat on the edge of one bed. She threw Romana a questioning look and the other girl simply shrugged and mouthed the words 'just go with it.' Kate rolled her eyes and let Isabelle take her hands and begin to paint her fingernails dark green.

"So the girls and I were just talking about the masquerade ball," Isabelle began, putting Kate in mind of the hairdressers she used to visit with her mother when she was much younger, "and we were wondering what sort of dress you're going to wear, and what color." She paused long enough to catch her breath, then continued, "Romana is going to wear yellow, Cholpon is going to wear teal, and I, of course, am going to wear pink," she said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, then rambled on, "Kalia and Olivia don't know what colors they're wearing yet, but Roxane is going to wear dark blue or white—she hasn't decided which though. Anyhow, we all think that you should wear green. Because, you know, it matches your eyes."

"Uh-huh." Kate nodded, brow raised, wondering why this could possibly be of any importance to them. Then again, they were the type of girls who cared more about what the handwriting on their homework looked like than the answers.

"We're all going mask shopping when we go to Hogsmeade on Saturday," Isabelle added, practically bursting with excitement, "and we want you to go with us. It'll be fun. We don't get to spend a lot of time together as a whole, you know. I mean, we're like family. We've shared a dorm for practically nine months of the year since we were eleven, so it's about time we start doing things together. After all, this is our last year." Her eyes seemed to well up with tears and it was as if she could go on no longer.

"What Issy means is that she wants everyone's opinion on the mask and dress she wants to buy," said Cholpon with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh, don't call me that, Cholpon," complained Isabelle pettily. "You make me sound like a boy."

Cholpon snorted and gave another shrug before turning back to her magazine. "How annoyed would you all be if I put a pin-up of Danica Krum on the wall next to my bed?" She pulled out an insert from her magazine and held it up for the others to see. On it was a dark-haired girl with inky blue eyes and beautiful Slavic features. She wore nothing but a pair of green panties with the word 'HARPIES' emblazoned on the backside in glittering gold letters. In her left hand she held out a golden snitch.

Isabelle, Olivia, Apikalia, and Roxane stared at her for a moment, before Roxane broke the silence. "God," she moaned, "I wish _my_ boobs were that big." There was a collective snort and several pillows were thrown at Roxane. The dark-haired girl squealed and tried to dodge the fluffy projectiles.

"No, seriously," persisted Cholpon. She looked at the winking pin-up, then up at the others, nonplussed.

"If you tell her to cover up," Isabelle quipped, muffling her laughter with her hand. "Not all of us like to look at boobs as much as you do."

It came as quite a shock to the girls when Cholpon had revealed to them her bisexuality in the last year. Surprisingly enough, all of them seemed to be alright with it despite the stigma that tended to float around in Slytherin about homosexuality. Even the boys had taken rather well to it, although this was probably due to the fact that it meant they eventually would see Cholpon and another girl kissing.

"Fine," Cholpon whined and folded the insert back into the magazine. "I'll keep her in there." She complained, "She's too attractive to stay in a magazine."

The girls all burst into laughter and went back to their gossiping. After a few relatively pointless conversations, everyone seemed to become very serious when Isabelle turned to Kate and spoke again, "So you and James are really through, huh?"

Kate pursed her lips, gave a shrug, and then nodded hesitantly. "I guess so. At least for awhile, maybe until he learns to grow up."

"I doubt that'll ever happen," snorted Cholpon from behind her magazine.

"Boys… they never grow up," Isabelle added sagely.

"So did you guys do it?" Olivia interjected with a smile on her face to rival the Cheshire cat's. A hush fell over the other girls as they leaned in, interested.

"Livie! Is that all you ever think about?" Isabelle squealed, but then added, "so did you?"

Kate groaned and rolled her eyes. "No, we didn't."

"What? So you still have your v-card?" Olivia seemed as surprised as the rest of the girls. "I almost don't believe that."

Kate gave a weak shrug and sighed, flopping onto her back. "Well, you should because it's true. I don't just want to have sex with a guy because we're dating. I mean, who knows how long those things last—obviously not long in this case. I'm glad now that I didn't."

"Well, uh, I guess that's good that you guys didn't do it then," Roxane said quietly.

"Roxi! Don't even!" shrieked Isabelle.

"Come on, she's going to find out anyway. It may as well be us who tell her." Roxane pursed her lips, glancing at Kate, who looked quite confused.

"What? Tell me what?" she asked pensively as one eyebrow quirked.

"Well," Roxane sighed, "We'd hate to be the bearers of bad news, but we thought you should know that James may not have been as great a boyfriend as you thought he was."

"Yeah, obviously, I guess," said Kate dryly. "After all, he can't grow up enough to treat my best friend like a civilized human—"

"No, that's not what we mean," interrupted Romana. "Kate," she said softly, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "James was messing around behind your back. Scorpius told us. At first we didn't believe him because we just thought he was jealous, but then we saw it for ourselves."

Kate's eyes widened with understanding. "So that's what Marjorie was talking about. James and Cathleen Derek have been for awhile."

"Not even just her." Isabelle shook her head.

"Who else?" asked Kate in disbelief.

"Ema Finnigan," Isabelle listed, "Tatiana Cadwallader. Cora Abercrombie."

"Diantha Barbary. Christy Boot," added Romana.

"Not to mention the Carmichael twins—at the same time," said Olivia sensationally. "Priscilla Higgs. Maria Kiely-White."

"The boy got around," Tara said, resuming painting her toenails an awful shade of chartreuse.

"And how long have you guys known this?" Kate wasn't sure if she should be more depressed or angry over the news. She had genuinely believed James to be a gentleman, at least where sex was concerned. But now it was all becoming clear to her exactly why he never pushed her to do anything she didn't want to do—he was getting it somewhere else.

"Well, Tatiana right off the bat. They've been messing around since fourth year, you know," Isabelle told her. "Ema Finnigan was only once, or so she told us, when she was drunk, and she feels really horrible about it, by the way." She continued to rattle off the facts while Kate listened, beginning to feel numb.

"Enough!" she exploded. "Sorry, I just don't want to hear anymore. That's just… disgusting."

"Maybe Scorpius was right about him, you know, Kate," Romana said softly. "Maybe you should have listened to him sooner. Even if he might have just been saying it for his own good."

"What do you mean?" Kate asked dubiously.

"What she means," said Olivia, "is that Scorpius has fancied you since, what, first year, or something like that. _Der._"

"Absolutely not," Kate denied, face straight.

"Absolutely." Romana nodded.

"No, he's just a friend. We've always been just friends."

"Really close friends. Come on, of course he has a bit of a thing for you, Kate, you're like his … I don't even know, but trust me. He definitely does." Romana gave a little smile and a shrug. "No use denying it. Practically everyone else knows it's true."

Kate stood, obviously a little more than confused, and then moved to her bed, flopping facedown onto it. "This is ridiculous," she mumbled. "I hate boys."


End file.
